Editor – Ron Ramsay, 48 Hospitalfield Road, Arbroath, Angus, DD11 2LSB&F Treasurer – Mrs Margaret Smith, Smeaton Farm Cottage, Dalkeith, Midlothian, EH22 2NLThe main features in the above issue were as follows (this is not a comprehensive detail of all it contained. The Club reports, in particular, are too time consuming at this stage to retype).EditorialLast month when I went to uplift the ‘B&F’ from the printers, to my surprise they had all been sent out and not a copy available for myself, which left me in a bit of a predicament as I need to refer to them from time to time. Needless to say I was met with puzzled looks when I tried to purchase copies at some of the clubs I visited. I eventually managed to acquire a couple of copies which brings me to an appeal to Club Secretaries to review their orders as it may not always be possible to get extra copies at short notice. The reason for this upsurge in circulation is that there are a lot of new subscribers in the London area, Wales and Ireland. I welcome the new readers and hope that they enjoy the publication.

The next issue of the ‘B&F’ will cover January as well, so would Club scribes, advertisers please remember to include any article for January.

Finally, sincere thanks to all who wrote to me with complimentary comments regarding last month’s edition. It is much appreciated.Ron Ramsay

Scottish Fiddle Playing and Its Irish Connectionsby Dr Kevin McCann, M.D., D.H.P.Scottish fiddle music has been played in Northern Ireland for at least a 150 years, particularly in Counties Donegal, Derry, Tyrone, Fermanagh and Antrim and indeed is still going strong in all those Counties today, especially in County Antrim.

I have had a lifelong admiration and affection for Scottish fiddle music, as my father who came from Trillick region of South Tyrone near the Fermanagh border was a good fiddle player in the Scottish mode, and the first tunes ever heard played on the fiddle were ‘The De’il Among theTailors’ and ‘Speed the Plough’ played with real verve by my father.

I spent many years as a youngster and adult listening to the Scottish tunes played by fiddlers in County Tyrone and Fermanagh. About 70 years ago fiddlers were numerous in this part of Ireland and Scottish tunes were an important part of their repertoire of music.

Historically the Scots have had a long and close association with the Northern Irish people. The two races are of Celtic origin and probably emigrated from the mainland of Europe to England, Wales, Ireland and Scotland at the same time, more than a millennium ago.

The Christian faith was brought to Scotland by Irish missionaries based on the island of Iona, causing a religious affiliation that lasted at least to the 16th century, i.e. up to the time of the Reformation.

There were also close political ties between the two nations for a lon time and Scottish and Irish clans existed as allies or foes over many centuries up to the time of Eoin Roe O’Neill in the 16th century.

In later times Irish fishermen, from Ulster in particular, fished in the North Sea and had a close and friendly relationship with Highland Scots, Shetland and Orkney Islanders, and as Gaelic was their common language, many songs, airs and tunes were exchanged during the association.

In more recent times, especially in the 19th century, thousands of Northern Irish people migrated to Scotland, especially in the Famine years and in this century many seasonal workers in particular the ‘Tattie Howkers’, or potato diggers traveled annually to Scotland in the autumn to harvest the potato crop for the more prosperous Scottish farmers. These migrants returned home after their work was completed and brought songs and music, both printed and oral with them to Ireland and influenced Northern Irish music to a large degree.

SCOTTISH MUSIC IN IRELANDScottish music and reels in particular have been played in Ireland for centuries and even the last of our harpers moved between both countries regularly and frequently and the Gaelic, linguistic and musical unity arising from the racial identity of the Irish and Scottish people was never completely broken from the 4th Century.

As an example of this musical exchange I quote as an example taken from Donald Dow’s music collection in the 1770’s some compositions of Ruairi Dall O Cathain, an Irish harper to several Scottish nobles such as ‘Ludes Supper’, ‘The Fiddler’s Contempt’ and ‘Ruairi Dall’s Lament’.

The violin was first introduced in the Scottish Highlands in the late 17th Century by Scottish Lords who hoped to bring new culture to the area. It also became a force of social change. The Highland Chieftains, as mentioned above, traditionally employed harpers and pipers to entertain in the mead hall or in the case of the pipers to lead them into battle.

The new clans of Anglicised Lords, however, were eager to replace this older culture with something more acceptable to their cosmopolitan tastes.

Little did they realise that the violin they preferred would be so enthusiastically embrased by the natives who would make it an instrument of native Scottish music.

Scottish fiddle music progressed in leaps and bounds to more sophisticated compositions and playing styles in the next two centuries.

Prominent in composition and playing of Scottish fiddle music were the Gow family especially Niel and his son Nathaniel who came from Inver about 60 miles north of Edinburgh. They played a major part in Scottish fiddle music at the end of the 18th and beginning of the 19th centuries. Characteristic of the new style of music beginning about this time was the Strathspey, a type of Reel that developed in the Valley (Strath) of the River Spey.

Strathspey reels as they were first called were first published in Scotland in the early 18th century. I would mention here that where played in Ireland the ‘Strathspey’ was called ‘Highland’ or ‘Scottische’ and was played at a faster tempo than in Scotland.

The two best strathspeys of Highland players I heard in Ireland were the late John Doherty and Francis Byrne, both Donegal fiddlers.

Niel Gow revolutionised Scottish fiddle playing not only in inventing ‘the driven up bow’ but also by composing some of the now famous strathspeys such as ‘Abercairney House’ and ‘Alexander Cunningham’, and numerous slow airs, the most admired being ‘Niel Gow’s Lament for his Second Wife’. He composed literally hundreds of other dance tunes, slow airs and marches which are played by Scottish and Irish fiddlers today.

REELS IN IRELANDIt is not too well known that reels were introduced to Ireland from Scotland, as before this occurred the main dance tunes played in Ireland was the jig. I will introduce here the names of some tunes played in Ireland today which originated in Scotland. Jigs that are regularly played in Ireland are ‘Oiche Nollag’ whose Scottish name is ‘There’s Na Luck Aboot the Hoose’, ‘The Atholl Highlanders’ and ‘Rose Wood’. Many reels come to mind ‘The Mason’s Apron’, ‘The Spey in Spate’, ‘The Soldier’s Joy’, ‘The Flowers of Edinburgh’ and ‘The Wind That Shakes the Barley’.

6) ‘Bonnie Kate’ Cait Boideach (Breathnach) stated by Niel Gow to have been composed and named ‘The Bonnie Lass of Fisherow’ by William Marshall in 1761.

7) Sean Frank’s Reel (Breathnach) known in Scotland as ‘Colonel McBean’ published 1798

8) Lord Gordon’s Reel composed by William Marshall and named ‘The Duke of Gordon’s Rant’.

9) Boyne Hunt – ‘Perth Hunt’ – ‘Niel Gow’s Reel’ (Cole Collection)

Most of the tunes names above were obtained from ‘Ceol Rinnce na hEireann, Leabhar a haon (number one).

There are many other composers, players and collectors of Scottish music – too numerous to mention here, but by far the most important Scottish composer of this century was James Scott Skinner, who composed great music, most of which is extremely popular with Scottish and Irish players. I will here mention a few of his best known and most played tunes. They include ‘The Bonnie Lass o’ Bon Accord’, ‘Margaret Walker Reel’, ‘The Laird o’ Drumblair’, strathspey’ ‘Spey in Spate’ reel, ‘The President’, exhibition piece and ‘The Left Handed Fiddler’ and scores of other too numerous to name here.

Admirers of Scott Skinner and players of his music include Sean McGuire of Belfast, the late John and Mickey Doherty and Francis Byrne of Co Donegal, Sean Keane who played ‘The Mathematician Hornpipe’ and Josie Keegan who plays ‘Hasberry Howard Hornpipe’.

Scott Skinner music is technically difficult to play and one has to have full command of the violin to play his music satisfactorily.

In 1953, through the good offices of the late Charles Curry, some Scottish fiddle players were invited to come to Ballymena, Co. Antrim , to play for The Derry and Antrim Fiddle Society. I had the good fortune to meet and hear them and was very favourably impressed indeed by their fine playing and music. The players were John Junner, Bert Murray and William Hardie, all from the Aberdeen area and gave a great account of themselves and gave all present the ‘low down’ on Scottish music, its history and its status at the time.

In 1954, I invited two of the above Scotsmen, John Junner and Bert Murray on a fiddle tour of Ireland so that they could get a close look at and hear Irish fiddle players on their home turf.

We began the Tour in Belfast and spent two days in Jack McGuire’s house in Belfast where the music went on day and night and great music was played by the Scots and the McGuires.

We next met the Ballymena players who included the late George McCrae, David MacWhinney, the late Alex Kerr, John Rae (xylophone) and the late Sean McLoughlin. Scottish music dominated the sessions with this group, and there was no doubt that Scottish fiddle music is strongest in Co. Antrim.

We then traveled to County Donegal and spent some time with the late John Doherty who enthralled and intrigued the Scotsman with his vast collection of Scottish tunes and his great fiddle technique.

From long association with him I believe John Doherty knew every tune in the 12 volumes of Kerr’s Collection and at least 4 of them contain over 400 tunes.

After visiting Donegal we visited the late Tommy Coen of Salthill and Beab Ui’ Standuin of Spiddal and ended up in Co. Clare listening to and taping Paddy Canny, P. Joe Hayes and many others.

John Junnor took hours of recording of the above named players and in his house in Strachan, Kincardineshire, he has a pile of spools of tape three feet high of recordings made of Irish fiddlers during their trip.

As John Junner is a fine pianist and accompanist, a lot of the music taped has piano accompaniment and is of high quality. John hopes to convert some of the music to cassette tapes for the edification and pleasure of today’s fiddle enthusiasts in Ireland and Scotland.

A VISIT TO ABERDEENThe Scotsman invited Sean McGuire and myself for a musical visit to Aberdeen in October, 1954, where we had a week’s non-stop musical feast of Irish and Scottish music played by Sean, John Junner, Bert Murray and Bill Hardie. It was a memorable week indeed and John Junner took Sean McGuire and myself to visit Scott Skinner’s grave which to us all was a memorable moment and that trip to Aberdeen so long ago still lives vividly in my mind.

A sideline to the trip was my conversation in Gaelic with John Junner mother, a grand old lady from the Highlands who spoke fluent Scots Gaelic which I found easy to understand due to its close resemblance to Donegal Gaelic.

During subsequent visits to Aberdeen, which I considered the hub of Scottish fiddle music, I had the good fortune to meet the late Tom Anderson, a Shetland Isles fiddler and composer of note who composed the well-known airs, ‘The Auld Resting Chair’ and ‘The Slockit Light’ and numerous dance tunes in his Shetland mode which has a strong Scandinavian flavour.

Tom subsequently invited Sean McGuire, Josie Keegan and Joe Burke to Shetland to give concerts for the Shetland enthusiasts where there were at least 200 active fiddle players and who play en masse in groups of up to 30 players together and produce fine music indeed.

The talented trio of McGuire, Keegan and Burke, made annual trips to Shetland for a decade. They played in Lerwick to capacity, enthusiastic and knowledgeable audiences.

Sean McGuire informed me that Shetlanders were the best audiences he ever played to, and Joe Burke agrees with this.

Bert Murray of Aberdeen, apart from being a fine fiddle player has composed more than 100 fine tunes which he has published recently and there isn’t a poor tune in the whole collection. His best known composition in Ireland is the reel ‘Sean McGuire’, composed in 1954.

Bill Hardie, another fine fiddle player and collector of tunes, is descended from six generations of fiddlers and fiddle makers. He has now moved to Edinburgh where, with his son, Alasdair, he has published a fine book of music entitled ‘The Beauties of the North’, a collection of airs and tunes from the Aberdeen area and in collaboration with Alasdair produced ‘The Caledonian Companion’ which apart from its fine collection of tunes and airs gives instructions to the music reader how to bow and finger the various melodies. It is a ‘sine qua non’ book for anyone playing Scottish fiddle music.

My last trip, October ’78 to Aberdeen was with the late Sean Reid, a fellow Tyrone man who was born and reared in Castlederg and who was very fond of Scottish fiddle music.

We traveled by car from Ennis and drove all the way to Aberdeen taking the Larne – Stranraer ferry to and from Scotland. It was cold and wintry weather but the warm reception we got in Aberdeen more than compensated for the snow on the ground outside.

We spent a week there and were entertained by the late Hector MacAndrew, Bert Murray and visited two fiddle clubs with Bill Hardie. The clubs were in Banchory and New Meldrum, both about 20 miles outside Aberdeen and a more enthusiastic and jolly collection of fiddlers I have yet to meet.

The fiddlers were from all walks of life and included farmers, whisky distillers, doctors and school teachers. The average size of each group was 20 players including a pianist and they all played from music and were conducted by Bill Hardie. Our reception was warm and the music was good.

Scottish music today is in a fairly healthy state, but some of the older fiddlers are worried at the dearth of young talent coming along. Unfortunately for Scottish traditional music in general there is no blanket organisation in place, such as the CCE in Ireland to promote the music and encourage the youth to take up fiddle playing. There are a few promising newcomers, however, the best being a young Aberdeen player in his 20’s names Alex Bain (no relation to Ali) and who has produced a fine tape of Scots fiddle music very well played.

There, of course, exists the solid body of recorded fiddle music ranging from re-recordings of old 78s by Scott Skinner to modern recordings by Ron Gonella, Bill Hardie, Bert Murray, John Cunningham, the late Hector McAndrew and many others.

For the sake of fiddle music in Ireland and Scotland, I sincerely hope that Scottish fiddle music prospers and increases in popularity, particularly here in Ireland where a lot can still be learned by all fiddle players by listening to Scottish music.

Footnote : Dr Kevin McCann, M.D., D. Ph., is a native of Dungavan, Co. Waterford, now living in Newfoundland, and has written many excellent articles which will be published in future issues of the ‘B&F’. Thanks to Bert Murray for pointing me in the right direction – Ed.

Highland Accordion & Fiddle Orchestraby Charlie JohnstonThe present orchestra of the Highland A&F Club was formed in September, 1988, by the late Ian Redford, Allen Shepherd and Adam Braidwood. Since early 1991, one of the original players Miss Julie Drummond has been Musical Director.

The players meet every second Sunday in the Recreation Hall, Inverness. Over the years the orchestra have entertained at many charity events in the Inverness, Nairn, Dinwall and Black Isle areas as well as guesting at A&F Clubs and playing for Inverness Music Festival. Further particulars can be obtained from any Committee member or from Julie on 01463 226493.

Keep FaithBy Jimmy AllanMy story concerns an old fiddle, a white waistcoat and Scottish dance…….

In 1912, my father, a gamekeeper and a native of Perthshire, moved up to Morayshire to work on an estate there. Dad, a self-taught fiddle player, had played for an old dancing master in his native Perthshire and was a pretty good dancer, having learned whilst watching the master at work.

Mam was taken with the white waistcoat and a romance blossomed. The First World War started and dad, like many more stalkers and keepers, joined the Lovat Scouts as a sniper.

Time moved on and our happy family home in Morayshire was visited by many of the locals to get “a tune fae Bob on the fiddle”. He always started his ‘thrash’ with ‘The Smith’s a Gallant Fireman’, whereupon my big brother Bert and I used to pull faces behind his back. Dad threatened, but never skelped.

The nearly village hall was the scene of many great night’s entertainment. With the fiddle, Bob attended all the dances, in plus-fours, but minus the eye-catching white waistcoat which had been eaten by moths during five years’ enforced idleness in a bothy kist during the war years. Picture the scene – paraffin lamps, the locals in their best clothes, most of them wearing boots, the women mostly in blouse and skirt, all awaiting the first notes of the battered old fiddle to strike up the Grand March, then straight into the Circassian Circle. As a youngster I sat and watched with eyes popping, completely hooked on the great spectacle. The smell I recall is that of sweaty bodies; the men, I suppose, like dad wore long drawers and must have been almost cooked. The smell of ‘roset’ from the lads who worked ‘in the wids’ mingled with farm smells and the unmistakable aroma of mothballs. The women, a little more refined, smelt of scent (Californian Poppy) – sixpence in Woolies.

Mam, herself never a dancer, used to warn us two boys to “stand well back when they do the Lancers”, and we had to come straight home when the Lancers was finished. As dad called the dance from the platform he was MC as well, and we used to beg him “dad, don’t put on the Lancers too soon”. When the Lancers was called we retreated to the door and watched. What a spectacle! And the highlight of the dance was what dad called ‘baskets’, though we did not understand why. This was the point when the men birled round at such a speed that the women were airborne – we saw their bloomers! We used to know who was the best birler and who could lift the women the highest. Mam’s worries about injuries to spectators were well founded.

Meanwhile the gentry up in the big hoose had their own form of entertainment – a world that we, as youngsters, knew nothing of. We were not allowed even to be seen near the big hoose – we were taught that we had to respect these people – who smelt not of sweat, roset or farm manure, but of tweeds, cigar smoke and French perfume. The lady of the big hoose decided that a bit of culture should be brought into the lives of us ordinary folk, and members of a string orchestra were engaged to entertain. The locals duly turned up to hear Mozart, Schubert and Bach, and applaud politely. They listened, but it was not their kind of music. My dad was doorkeeper on this occasion, and as they left the comment was made “Faur’s yer fiddle, Bob? We want to hear a richt tune!” Dad smiled, and was secretly greatly chuffed.

My parents sent me to learn the fiddle, but I did not make much of it. I hated the sound I made. I was always attracted to dance classes, so I packed in the fiddle and with my 1/6d went instead to lessons in ballroom dancing. As a serviceman during the second war, I was able to put this to good use in such places as the Tower Ballroom, Blackpool, but was later brought down to earth when stationed at a small airfield near Paris. Dr Donald Caskie, the Tartan Pimpernel, invited me to a ceilidh at his home in Paris where he said, “We do a few Scots dances”. I found that I was totally inept at the Eightsome Reel ! I determined to rectify this.

After the war, my work took me to various parts of Scotland and I had the opportunity to learn Scottish Country Dancing which I always thoroughly enjoyed, completely hooked as I was on Scottish music and dance. But at the back of my mind I always hankered back to the great fun of the old-time village hall dances. The wonderful spectacle on television of Jimmy Shand and the dancers at Letham kindled a spark in me that I found hard to extinguish. Were the dances that I knew in my childhood coming back? I often wondered if dad would have approved of the sophistication and precision of modern Scottish Country Dances, and sometimes I almost felt like a defector. He had thought it prissy to be holding the woman at arm’s length. “It’s nae natural. That’s the wey the toff’s dance!” he’d say.

Should the likes o’ me care tippence abootCastle or mansion or spire?The fowk that were my fowk lived by their skills In smiddy and bakehoose and byreThough their hames are but rickles, tae us they hae leftTheir music, their smeddum, their speikKeep playin it, sayin it. Ever keep faithKeep it here for oor bairns, should they seek!

Reading Betty Allan’s lines I wondered, was I keeping faith with my dad?

My story is now brought up to date as I find myself dancing at the Summer School at Stirling University. We did the dances that I remember from my days in the village hall – Lancers, Quadrilles and dad’s favourite La Va. Bert and I used to sing as he played,

All these and many more were expertly taught at Stirling by Jessie Stewart from Dufftown and resulted for me in four days of nostalgia and enjoyment, of which Bob the fiddler would have heartily approved.

All the characters in the early part of my story are now gone. Mam and dad are long since buried at Tullich on Deeside, and Bert is commemorated along with them on their headstone. My brother never lived to experience the joy I’ve had in dancing – war and the Wellington bomber saw to that. We are told that Tullich kirkyard was the scene of the first Reel of Tullich when the congregation danced while waiting for the minister on a cold Sunday. I often stop there on my visits up Deeside and in my imagination I hear the strains of the old fiddle, or perhaps it’s just ‘a curlew wheeplin across the meer’.

I suppose if Bob the fiddler appeared at an Accordion and Fiddle club today he would be outclassed by the many talented young players. Such is the standard of playing now that expectations are higher, audiences have become more critical, and enjoyment more difficult to achieve. In Bob’s day people expected less but got much more pleasure from his playing because he played ‘fae the hert’.

Small Notes from the Workshopby Ritchie Ahearne (501 London Road, Thornton Heath, Surrey)“Just the man I wanted to see”, said Clifford, “are you interested in an old squeezebox?” (a question guaranteed to focus the concentration) “someone gave it to us for our church bazaar – I’ll bring it along….”

Clifford has been my GP for thirty-odd years, and despite his classical prowess on the piano, he knows very little about the family of free-reed instruments. In fact, were you to mention free-reed, he would probably ask who Reed was, and what he had done to be incarcerated – drugs (?) – serial killer (?)…

I had a vision of the unknown instrument as being of obscure pre-war manufacture, with all the valves describing perfect semi-circles away from corroded reed-blocks, and sounding like our asthmatic vacuum cleaner. I was wrong.

He arrived with a little hexagonal shape dangling from one hand, he accepted my offer, and I became the custodian of a Lachenal concertina of great age.

A bit like some ladies garments we come across from time to time, it was strapless. Also, a bit like some of the lower orders we come across from time to time, it allowed air to pass untrammeled by the mechanism provided for its control. The positive aspect was that the five-fold leather bellows were in almost mint condition, as were the Honduras mahogany ends and bone buttons. Some pressing work on the bench only allowed for a quick exterior polish, and it was sat with my small collection of melodeons. That night, I found an illustration of a similar instrument in a John Scheerer catalogue, c1895. More of that later.

Two things I knew would get to me, (1) it wasn’t in playable condition and (2) even if it was I couldn’t play it. A hurtful admission, having played diatonics for 45 years.

Instruments invariably offer the repair-man a delicious sense of discovery, and the Lachenal was no exception. Removal of the ends led to the rout of two confused spiders, who made off, scampering, in the manner of an eightsome, where only half the participants know the dance. Other, more sobering finds, included a broken brass reed, a shrinkage split through one of the pallet boards and the pallets themselves all over the parish.

A rummage through the ‘obsolete reed’ (junk) box, turned up the inevitable zinc plate with brass reeds. It also turned up two small screwdrivers, a packet of 0.3mm drills, a sundry assortment of small screws, and a remarkably well preserved smartie.

A reed was selected, removed, cut, filed, fitted, muttered at and course tuned. (the fitting exercise is almost certain to broaden the vocabulary). The split was repaired, the pallet faces renewed, the reed was fine tuned and muttered at again, the instrument was re-assembled and new straps fitted. Pure joy.

A hexagonal case was constructed, red-velvet-lined, and fitted with six nickel-plated feet. The feet get special mention as they cost 90p. The 20p telephone call and the 50p postage brought their total cost to £1.70. In the aforementioned catalogue, the original price of the concertina was 6 shillings and 6 pence, equivalent to just 32.5 pence in today’s currency. The feet, therefore, cost over FIVE TIMES the price of the instrument when new, around a century ago.

In view of the system used to excite our reeds, I feel that any serious discussion on inflation is probably out of the question.

Does anyone know a concertina driver?

Air on the Ancient G-stringCarlisle’s Tullie House museum will prove you can get a new tune from an old fiddle even if it is one of the oldest and rarest in the world.

The museum will add another string to its bow when it dusts down its most prized possession, the 436-year-old Andrea Amati violin, for a CD recording.

The priceless masterpiece bequeathed to Tullie House 50 years ago by a collector is one of the oldest – if not the oldest – in the world.

The instrument was made in Italy for King Charles IX of France in the 16th Century.

It was acquired by violinist and historical instrument collector Sybil Mounsey-Heysham of Rockcliffe, near Carlisle, who left it to the museum when she died in 1949.

Now museum curator David Clarke wants the violin to be used for a CD recording, possibly in Carlisle Cathedral.

He is hoping to persuade a top violinist to play the instrument, which is currently not on show while it ‘rests’ in a dark place.

“Obviously extreme care must be taken with this violin. It was on show for four years until fairly recently and will be exhibited again in the near future but it is being kept in a dark place for the moment” he said. “It is quite a coup for us to have such a treasure”.

“We want to have a one-off historical CD recording made using the violin. We will need an acclaimed violinist who can handle an instrument of its age and type”.

Your LettersI am pleased to tell you that the response to my recent letter has been most encouraging and as a result the Bromley A&F Club will meet on the 2nd Tuesday of each month from October to May with the exception of April.Robin Ellis